Talk:Hell and Back/@comment-5678930-20140306144254/@comment-22930393-20150224100233
Leviathan, the serpent of the Abyss mentioned in the old Testament (Tanakh) The Leviathan is mentioned six times in the Tanakh, with Job 41:1–34 being dedicated to describing him in detail:[1] :1 Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? :2 Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? :3 Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words? :4 Will he make an agreement with you for you to take him as your slave for life? :5 Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls? :6 Will traders barter for him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? :7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? :8 If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! :9 Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering. :10 No-one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me? :11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. :12 I will not fail to speak of his limbs, his strength and his graceful form. :13 Who can strip off his outer coat? Who would approach him with a bridle? :14 Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth? :15 His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; :16 Each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. :17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted. :18 His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of dawn. :19 Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. :20 Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. :21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth. :22 Strength resides in his neck; dismay goes before him. :23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. :24 His chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. :25 When he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his thrashing. :26 The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. :27 Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. :28 Arrows do not make him flee, sling stones are like chaff to him. :29 A club seems to him but a piece of straw, he laughs at the rattling of the lance. :30 His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing-sledge. :31 He makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. :32 Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think the deep had white hair. :33 Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature without fear. :34 He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over all that are proud.